Complexities and progress in studies of optical chaos

Neal B. Abraham

Deterministic chaos has come to public appreciation (via a recent PBS special and James Gleick's book Chaos) and to the quantum electronics community (via a new understanding of the pervasive irregularity of laser pulsations)1 at about the same present moment. The broader ubiquity of chaos and the intellectual challenges of its study are demonstrated by the interest of artists, astronomers, chemists, economists, mathematicians, neuroscientists, and physicists.